Digital technology Google+ has an exciting future

Digital technology is growing and growing. In this TV show Nigel Huddleston explains why the future of Google+ is exciting for business and pleasure.

Social digital technology

We’re really excited about Google Plus because as a social platform it’s not a standalone, we’re integrating it with search. But it’s really exciting because we’ve not only got more than 400 million unique users, but they’re using it in a really creative way that maybe they aren’t with other social platforms. The video content capability is great, showing photos of course is really, really important. But what we’re seeing from an advertiser’s angle as well is that they’re able to example, link to their Google Plus page in the advertising. We’re seeing a five to ten percent uplift in click through rates, to the link to the Google Plus page. So that’s really important, we call that social extensions. So there’s a meaningful impact from an advertiser’s side in terms of having that Google Plus social platform.

Keep an eye on Inside Finance if you are interested in social digital technology. There will be more TV shows from knowledgeable business insiders like Nigel Huddleston.

Digital technology Google+ has an exciting future

Digital technology is growing and growing. In this TV show Nigel Huddleston explains why the future of Google+ is exciting for business and pleasure.

Social digital technology

We’re really excited about Google Plus because as a social platform it’s not a standalone, we’re integrating it with search. But it’s really exciting because we’ve not only got more than 400 million unique users, but they’re using it in a really creative way that maybe they aren’t with other social platforms. The video content capability is great, showing photos of course is really, really important. But what we’re seeing from an advertiser’s angle as well is that they’re able to example, link to their Google Plus page in the advertising. We’re seeing a five to ten percent uplift in click through rates, to the link to the Google Plus page. So that’s really important, we call that social extensions. So there’s a meaningful impact from an advertiser’s side in terms of having that Google Plus social platform.

Keep an eye on Inside Finance if you are interested in social digital technology. There will be more TV shows from knowledgeable business insiders like Nigel Huddleston.

Uber Disruption

New technologically innovative transport company Uber have turned the taxi industry upside down. Tech expert Robert Scoble explains what happened.

Uber disrupt an industry

They have to be scared that they are going to be put out of business. You better be paranoid. Things like Uber came out four years ago and now it's everywhere. You need to understand the innovators that are changing your business. Uber knows where you are standing, that's why it serves you better than a taxi company, they have your credit card details and we can talk to each other. He doesn't have my real phone number but he can message and call me through and app.
Our briefing Uber Disruption – The reality of innovative technology has more information on Uber and more expert discussion on industry disruption.

Business strategy models have to adaptable to future disruptions and developments. In this TV show Keith Coats of TomorrowToday discusses strategic thinking for leaders.

Business strategy models in an unpredictable world

Leaders have to be future-focused. Levi right now have a great slogan, which says ‘the future has left, so go forth’. Jim Data is a retired futurist and he articulated that past thinking amongst futurists was something like this … I might have some of the percentages slightly wrong but the rough ratios is 80% of our tomorrows would be built on what futurists call continuations, so if you want to understand tomorrow, look at the DNA of today, 80%. 15% would be cycles – economic, political social cycles – and 5% would be novelties. Now, in the futurist language a novelty is the curve ball, the unexpected, the 9/11, the thing that very few people could foresee. I’ll preface that with past thinking. Current thinking amongst futurists has inverted that table, turned it on its head. They are telling us that up to 80% of our tomorrow is what they call novelty, we simply do not know. Now, even if they’re half correct I wouldn’t go to war over those percentages, it’s the trend here we’re looking at, that the bulk of our tomorrows is going to be a surprise, going to be the unexpected, the unpredictable. The question then becomes how do you build continuity in that? What does the organisation that learns how to build planes in the air, as it were, look like in that context? For one thing it renders redundant strategic planning, you cannot plan your way into that kind of uncertainty. We need companies today who understand the emphasis needs to be on strategic thinking and at all levels of the organisation, this is a leadership agenda.

Inside Finance is very interested in business strategy models and the future business world. Browse our video player for related content.

Dynamic boards are now using expertise form generation y to inform their business development. In this TV show Peter Klauber discusses this change.

Modern thinking in dynamic boards

I think Y generation has a lot to answer for. I think it is fantastic. Ideas come from everywhere in an organisation not just the board. I think most switched on companies will enable everyone to add some opinion to the process of business development. We now have very dynamic boards with all ages, looking for expertise to help and there's no fear in using it.

Business assets: Why Google came knocking

Having the right business assets can make you a lot of money if an interested acquirer gets in touch. In this TV show BeatThatQuote.com’s John Paleomylites discusses selling to Google.

The right business assets

There wasn't anything specifically that we did with a view to selling it to Google. Google approached us. I the year to Jan '11 revenues of the company were around 14m, with a reasonable profit. Subsequently as the company would have grown probably in the subsequent year probably around 20m. So there was still a fair amount of growth in the business. I think there was probably a few reasons why it was BeatThatQuote.com. In e of them would be down to the technology choices that we made, I think it would be accurate to say that BeatThatQoute of all of the UK comparison sites was the only one that used open source technologies to deliver it's service. I think one of the other reasons is that BeatThatQoute never really developed a brand. Our route to market was through direct marketing and through white label, which is essentially putting our content into other people's brands. Whereas pretty much all of the other aggregators were branded, and given that Google really has the best brand in the industry there was no need for them to pay over the odds to acquire a branded comparison site. the most important lesson I think that any entrepreneur really needs to learn and to understand is to negotiate the best deal that they can possibly get.
Keep exploring Inside Finance for more TV shows about business assets and similar subjects.

The legal sector has many processes some of which include collection of forensic evidence. In this video Doug Hall explains how this applies to finance.

Legal sector collects forensic finance evidence

As a term forensic just means to do with evidence and really it’s any part of the legal process where you need accounting services. So the primary areas that we cover is my own practice, which is commercial disputes, fraud investigations and also computer investigations. I get that a lot that it’s about cutting up bodies but that’s forensic pathology. Forensic is really just, as I said, about evidence, it’s how a commercial issue is dealt with through the legal process and forensic is about establishing the evidence in support of or to defend a case, in my arena in disputes.

If you enjoyed this TV show about the legal sector and forensic evidence then why not browse more videos on Inside Finance.

Disruptive innovation: Music industry chaos the first digital revolution

Disruptive innovation is well known to have had an huge impact in the music industry. In this TV show Graeme Codrington discusses what happened and how other industries can learn a lesson from it.

Disruptive innovation in music

The best examples of structural change are those industries that we can already see have been impacted by the digital revolution. Your best examples there come out of the entertainment industries. So music for example, is an industry that just is in chaos at the moment, I mean they don’t know how to make money anymore, they don’t know where their income streams come from. They’re the only industry in the world who are currently suing their own clients, you know it’s crazy. But they really don’t know how to make money at the moment. And we’re going to see a lot more chaos in the music industry because they’re not innovating, they’re not working out new ways of getting income, they’re not working out new ways of connecting with clients. And of course because of how they’ve handled themselves over the last decade or so, most of their customers are very comfortable ripping them off and downloading stuff for free and so on. So it’s a mess. But it’s easy to look at that industry and of course DVDs and the movies industry are following close behind them and close behind them are the newspapers and the magazines. And it’s easy to laugh at them, but every other industry has the potential to be digitised in pretty much the same way. So even the medical profession which you’d think, well, that’s not going to really going to be digitised, it can be done at a digital distance. The type of advice you get from your general practitioner, you can get via Skype from anyone in a call centre anywhere. You might not prefer it that way, but it is accessible that way. And so you think of any industry you like and this digitisation has the potential to disrupt your industry as much as it has disrupted the entertainment industry in the last decade.

Inside finance will continue to follow the impacts of disruptive innovation and the discussions around it. We have more great shows from Graeme Codrington.

Attitude to risk: Successful IT investors are risk averse

The attitude to risk form those in high risk environments is to exercise caution as Michael Pagliari explains in this TV show.

A cautious attitude to risk

I actually have a few clients that have done exactly that and I’ve actually found that there I’m on the more cautious of our clients. So their business risk, if you like, is very high and they’re well aware of it and the last thing they want to do is suffer losses under their financial asset portfolio, so I’ve tended to find those people the most cautious of all the clients that I manage money for. Investment does involve risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up. This video contains information believed to be reliable but no guarantee is given. See Video for full disclaimer.

Keep visiting Inside Finance for more great videos on attitudes to risk and similar subjects.

Digital generation of 1989 entering the world of work

Digital generation, digital natives and generation Y are all references to the young people who have grown up with technology. They are now reaching the age where they are entering industry. Graeme Codrington discusses the significance of this.

The digital generation born at the same time as the internet

Technology is obviously a huge driver of change in our world. Recent advances in computing power have really brought computers up to a level where they can now deliver on what our imaginations have been promising for a few decades, and it really just is in the last literally 18 - 24 months that computing power speed size and price have all come together to mean we can really do what we want to do with computers and now we are set up for the next decade of change, but in addition to the raw computing power, it's also the people, we have got a group of people we like to call digital natives who are entering the world of work, these are the young people that were born in that remarkable year of change 1989, the year communism died and the Berlin wall came and Tiananmen Square happened. But also 1989 was the year the internet as we know it was started. Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML and web pages where born, and young people who were born in 1989 were born in the same year that the internet was born and started working for you last year, and they've brought their computers with them, and so it's this combination of computing power and a new generation of digital natives arriving in the workplace at precisely the same time, its going to cause huge disruptive change.

Inside Finance TV will continue to follow the impact of the digital generation entering the world of work.

In this business growth show, Colin Stevens of Better Bathrooms discusses how his win at the National Business Awards gave him a publicity boost and increased his sales.

Business growth show: Awards publicity

Staff turnover’s reduced, sales have continued to increase. On our website we have but ‘award winning company’ and that improved conversion rates, which improves sales. People walking into the store say we just read you in the paper. On my twitter feed loads of people started following me, I got interviewed on Sky. This is a funny story. After winning at the National Business Awards it deserved to be celebrated. So we stayed out pretty much all night long in London and had a great time and after two hours sleep I went to Sky news. I was lying on the coach going I don’t think I can go on. I got made up and got the mic on at the studio. As I walking over to Kay Burley I had to dodge all the camera wires. As I was about to go on there was a war hit and I didn’t think I would get to do my bit, but Kay Burley is also from Wigan and she was adamant to get me on. So I did about seven minutes on Sky news. They did a fantastic piece on us they showed the business and the store. Getting that publicity is priceless. We could put it on our website and it provided credibility.

Look out for more business growth shows on Inside Finance TV. We will continue to follow ideas around publicising a business.

Business growth show: Two changes which ramped up sales

In this business growth show Colin Stevens explains how BetterBathrooms responded to customer needs in a way the industry had never done before.

Business growth show: Improving the industry standard

Predominantly the bathroom industry was Monday to Friday 9-5, you know, when everyone was at work, it seems madness looking back. So we included weekend opening hours, Saturday and Sunday, we did that from day one, seven days from when we opened the door. But what we did about three years ago, we changed the operating hours to ten o’clock at night in the week. So that’s sales, over the phone, showrooms, customer service, and again that has grown our sales quite tremendously. But were the first people to do that in the industry. Obviously the National Business Awards recognise that as being quite disruptive in the marketplace and that’s one of the other things. Another thing is transport system. We deliver nationwide so were are dealing with lots of logistics people all over the country, we found that we couldn’t keep full control of that so we’ve actually, in the north-west started our own transport network internally, so we’ve created a load more jobs, got a load of better bathrooms vans on the road. Service has increased dramatically because of it, for instance satisfaction rating went from, on our own transport vehicles, it went from 8.2 out of 1o to 9.9 out of 10 in the north-west. So its amazing when you listen to the customer and you think, actually this makes sense. It ramps your business.
If you found this business growth TV show interesting why not watch more shows on Inside Finance?